So, what bodies are they going
to have? This has been an enjoyable study.
It really gives you a glimpse into what's coming and a little
excitement. As I read and studied this, it
gives you an excitement of what's coming. Not a dread, not a fear
of death, an excitement. Job said, if a
man die, shall he live again? Well, the answer to that is yes. Yes, he shall live again. He
shall be raised from the dead. Now, the apostles preached salvation
by Christ and Him crucified. They preached His blood as the
atonement for our sins. His righteousness as the only
righteousness that God accepts. They preached His resurrection.
There are two things they preached, His substitutionary work and
His resurrection. You go through the book of Acts,
they're constantly saying God raised Him from the dead. God
raised Him from the dead. They preached His resurrection
from the dead. They kept declaring He is not
dead. He's not dead, He's raised. And
His resurrection was one part of their preaching that caused
great trouble. Paul said over in Acts 24, he
said, because of this, I'm brought into question, because of preaching
His resurrection. Now there were some who denied
His resurrection, and they denied the resurrection of the dead.
Look over in verse 12. Now if Christ be preached, that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead?" You know there were the Sadducees
who said there is no resurrection. They didn't believe in the Spirit
or they didn't believe in the resurrection at all. And they
were denying the resurrection of Christ. They were denying
the resurrection of anyone. But that's the way natural men
think. And they thought They thought,
if there is a resurrection, if there is a resurrection from
the dead, how can that be? How can a body that's been in
the grave, say, for thousands of years, thousands of years,
how can that body be put back together? How can a body that
has maybe been burned How can it be put back together? And
if so, then what kind of body is that person going to have?
What kind of body are we going to have when we are raised from
the dead? And Paul is going to answer this. Only in the Word of God can we
find the answer to this question. Now, the ones asking this question
are those who are supposed to be wise in the Scriptures. That's
why Paul says in verse 36, thou fool. These are the ones, these
people asking, are the ones who are supposed to know something
here. They are the ones who study the Scriptures. And that's why
Paul says, you're fools in the Scriptures, in your knowledge,
in your understanding of the Scriptures. How can you read
the Word of God As they did, they studied it. How can you
read of His power over all things and then question, how can this
be? And then question God's power
to raise a body from the dead. He made this world out of nothing.
He made all that we see out of nothing. He just spoke it into
existence. He created Adam from the dust.
Now if this body goes back to the dust, can he not from that
dust bring this body back up? He sure can. He sure can. So what Paul is going to do here,
he's going to give them an example and he's going to use the farmer.
He's going to take something easy for us to understand, something
very simple, a simple illustration, and he's going to illustrate
a heavenly meaning a heavenly truth. When a farmer plants his
crops, in this case we'll say corn, when he plants his corn,
he has to put it in the ground. If there is going to be seed,
if there is going to be a crop, if there is going to be fruit,
that little grain of corn That little old tiny grain of corn,
it absolutely has to be put in the ground and buried. And it
has to die. It has to die. In order for us
to enjoy the fruit of that little old grain of corn, it has to
die. And in order for us to enjoy
the fruit of that new body, this one has to be planted. And that's
what He's going to teach us here. It has to be planted. That farmer
must put it in the ground, bury it, and let it die. Not try to keep it alive. Let
it die. Let it die. If it dies, if it's
buried and it dies, now listen, it will produce a whole crop
of corn. You see that little blade coming
up, that little old tender blade, that little old tender plant
coming up from that piece of corn was put in the ground and
it died. And up comes that little old
tender plant, and that tender plant grows up to be a tall stalk,
and then an ear of corn starts to grow on it, and then on that
ear of corn there's a lot of those little kernels of corn
on just that one cob. A lot of them. Out of that one. Out of that one. Corn on the
shelf produces nothing, does it? Just leave it on the shelf
and see what kind of crop you have. Just let the farmer keep
it in the barn and see what kind of crop he has. You know, when
I was growing up on a farm, I knew something about this. We would
have potatoes, man. You wouldn't believe the potatoes
that we would raise. Enough to feed the family of
nine all winter long. And then at the end of winter,
sometimes we would have enough left over for seed. And we'd
take a split, and you'd have what they call the eyes on them.
planet, and that dies. That potato dies. But that eye,
those sprouts start coming out and then you have all those new
potatoes. Corn on the shelf or potatoes
left in the cellar will not produce fruit. It will not do it. However,
if it's buried and it decays, it produces fruit. Much fruit. Fruit like itself. Much more
of it. And tasty. Much more tasty. Look over at John chapter 12. John chapter 12 and verse 23. And Jesus answered them saying,
The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Now
He's speaking of Himself here as the corn of wheat being buried.
And then when He's raised from the dead, my, the fruit that's
going to come from Him. The fruit that's going to come
out of Him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. It produces
nothing. But if it dies, it brings forth
much fruit. And what Christ is teaching them
He's going to die. He is going to die. He's going
to be buried. And He is going to produce much
fruit. His death is not an end, it's
the beginning of much fruit. And I'm looking at it. I'm looking
at it. And it's been producing much
fruit for thousands of years. Heaven's going to be populated
with a people just like Christ that was produced through Him.
He said, Oh, it has to die. It has to die. in order to produce
much fruit. Now, what Paul is saying here
is if God can do that with a grain of corn, if He can do that, can
He not do the same thing with a dead, decaying body planted
in the ground? Is one harder than the other?
No, not at all. We must die to be glorified.
When the farmer sows, he sows, he says in verse 37, Bare grain. Just that one little grain here.
Then he'll plant another one and plant another one. But he
plants one grain at a time of corn. And he plants bare grain. It's not dressed up. It's not
all clothed. It's not all decorated. It's
just bare grain. That's all it is. It's bare grain.
It's a single piece of corn. It's not the stalk. He doesn't
plant the stalk. He plants that little piece of
grain of corn. That's what he plants. The body
that shall be comes later. It comes later. It comes after
death. Look over in verse 46. Of this
chapter. How be it that was not first,
which is spiritual, but that which is natural and afterward
that which is spiritual. You see, the first is natural
and it's got to be planted in the ground. That which is next,
or last, is the spiritual, the spiritual body. That's what he's
talking about here. He's talking about the body.
Now, it may chance, he says, of wheat or of some other grain. Now, he's not saying he doesn't
know what's going to come up. That's like the farmer. When
he plants his garden, he knows what he's planting in the garden.
He knows what's going to come up. But here's what he's saying.
God gives it a body. as it pleases Him, according
to His sovereign will. The body that we will come up
with in the resurrection is of God. It's of God. It's not a natural body. Although
it will be flesh and bones, and it will be me. I'm in a realm
above our heads. But it's going to be a spiritual
body. It will be a body just like our Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual
body. He giveth it a body as it pleases
Him. God gives every seed, He says,
its body. He gives the corn, corn and so
forth, you know. And He gives us that spiritual
body as it has pleased Him to do so. Has pleased Him to do
it. And this body that we will have,
it will be so far above what we
have now. It will be so far. The qualities
of it, the glory of it will surpass this. We'll see this here in
just a second. It will so much surpass this body of flesh here
that we have in sin. It will be so far above it as
our flesh is above that of an animal. It will be so far above
it. It will be beautiful. It will
be beautiful. Beautiful body. It will be a
useful body. I mean really useful. This one
is useful to a point. Then a lot of times it gets in
the way. You are limited in that body. Our bodies limit us. They limit us. There will come a day when it
will be such a glorious body. Such a beautiful body, such a
strong body, that there'd be no comparison to this one. He
says here, and he's going to make this comparison now, all
flesh is not the same. But there is one kind of flesh
of men, another flesh of beasts, and another of fish, and another
of birds. All flesh is not the same. And
here's the point. When God raises our bodies, and
these bodies will be raised from the grave, and it will be me,
and it will be flesh and bones. No sin, but it will be flesh
and bones. When the Lord came to Thomas,
He said, Touch Me. They were afraid. They thought
they had saw a spirit. He said, A spirit does not have
flesh and bones. And he sat down and he ate with them. Then afterward,
you know what it says? He vanished out of their sight. We are going to have a body just
like his. And when God raises our bodies from the grave with
flesh and bones in comparison to what we have now, it will
be as different as comparing my flesh to a dog. It will be
that much, I mean, just far, even far greater than that. It
will be so far above this one that it's unimaginable. We can't
even imagine it. We can't even imagine it. Now, there are also celestial
bodies, in verse 40, and bodies terrestrial. But the glory of
the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
They all have their own glory, as God gave it to them. They
all have their own bodies and their own glory, the glory of
that body. There's one glory of the sun and another glory
of the moon. And another glory of the stars,
for one star differs from another star in glory. You know, they're
stars, but they have a different purpose. The sun has a different
purpose than the moon. It has its own glory. That's
what he's saying. It has its own purpose that God
has created it for. And all these bodies that we
see are different. You know, he's saying the heavenly
bodies, the celestial, is different than these earthly bodies. Men,
beast, fish, bird, that's the terrestrial. He said they're
all different. All of them. But here's what
Paul is stressing. The great difference, the great
difference of that body that we shall have can't even be compared
to these things now. He keeps making this comparison.
Can't even be compared to what we have now. Right now we have
a body that's frail, growing old. Can't stop that, can you? Vicki has some facial wash at
the house that says age defying. It ain't working. I can tell
you, it ain't working. The only thing, you know what's
age defying? It's when God raises it from the dead. When God raises
this body from the grave, it will age no more. It's not working
on me. I better correct that one. It's
not working on me because I use it. But it's what Paul is stressing.
He said there's no comparison, no comparison. So is the resurrection,
he says, of the dead. Verses 42 and 44. The resurrection
will be, it will be in our flesh. As far as the substance of it,
it will be in our flesh. But as to the qualities of that
new body and the difference, Paul says it's not even... I
don't know what you can compare it to. See, we don't have anything
really to compare it to. All we've known is sin. All we've
known is aging. All we've known is aches and
pains. That's all we've known. Look over in Philippians 3. We're in Philippians chapter
3. In verse 21, Paul says, Who shall
change our vile body? That's what he calls it, this
vile body. That it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself. He's able. He's
able to subdue this body. He's able to lay this body in
the grave. He's able to raise this body no matter how long
this world stands. This body may be in the grave
a thousand more years. I mean, I don't know. It may
be. But whenever He calls, I tell you what, that body will
come out of the grave. It'll come out a glorified body just
like His, just as His did. Now listen to these, let me give
you some points here, then I'll wind it down. This body, he says,
is sown in corruption. But it's raised in incorruption. Usually, usually when we bury
these bodies, and this is so, they're worn out. They're worn
out. They're old and they're broken
down, usually by the time we bury them. They're wrinkled up. But when God raises them, you
see, He said it's sown in corruption. This body is frail, dying, decaying. But when God raises these bodies,
they will be glorious, glorious bodies. No sin, no disease, no
corruption in any way, shape or form. No corruption. Don't we have something to look
forward to? Really, don't we have something to look forward
to? It's buried in dishonor, but it's raised in glory. David
said this, I was born in sin, and shaping in inequity. That's
me by nature. And that's what this body, every
sin that I have ever committed or ever will commit, I have done
it in this body. This body has been a part of
it. It is sown and buried in dishonor. Dishonor. But it's raised in
glory. It's raised in the image of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When this body will be raised,
it'll be as pure and as holy as that new nature that will
reside in it. Just as pure and holy. And he says it's buried in weakness.
In weakness. Is there anything that comes
into this world any weaker than a human baby. I mean, you go
out and animals, human animals, I mean, human animals, babies,
animals, they can live in the wintertime. They can survive
out there in the wilderness. Put a baby out there. Can't do
it. Can't do it. Buried in weakness. We are truly We are truly weak. God must give us our every breath.
Every breath. It's buried in weakness, but raised in power. Raised in power. How many of
you, I know I have, seen people grow older, become very weak,
I watched my grandfather. My grandfather was a big man,
about six foot two. He was a big man. Big hands,
just big body. But when he passed away, he probably
didn't weigh 130, 140 pounds. They buried him in weakness. Buried him in weakness. We're raised by the power of
God. And we shall have, listen now,
we shall have great power. We shall have great power. Power
in ourselves. We will not have to depend upon
food and shelter. We won't have to worry about
what's for dinner. Really, we will not have those things anymore.
See, we have to have those things now because of the weakness of
this body. It has to have it to survive.
When that new body is raised, we won't need that. Won't need
it. Not at all. And we shall have
perfect mental capacity. Perfect mental capacity. Can
you imagine that? We will have perfect physical
abilities. And we will have perfect spiritual
power like our Lord. Paul says we bury a physical
body, a natural body. That's what we bury. That's what
goes into the grave. Every time we have gone to a
funeral, that's what we have buried, a natural body. But we
shall be raised a spiritual body. Do you know what that means? We shall be raised a spiritual
body? It means this, we shall have
a supernatural body. Hollywood is constantly making
up movies on supernatural strength, supernatural human beings, bionic
man and bionic woman, Hercules. I mean, they're always coming
up with this supernatural stuff. Well, this is so. We will have a supernatural body. and powers and mental capacities. We can't begin to scratch the
surface of what that new body is going to be like. A body that
does not need food or drink or any of these things that we have
to have now. Sleep? We don't have to have
it. It says in Scripture, there will
be no night there. Because you won't be tired. You will not
wear out. That just sounds so good to be
true, doesn't it? It absolutely sounds too good to be true. Because
all we've known is this. But this is true. We will have
a body like our Lord Jesus Christ, beautiful, powerful, incorruptible. Here's what we'll have, the soul
made perfect in a perfect body.